Five months after unveiling a sweeping plan to supercharge America’s artificial intelligence development, President Trump’s administration is now locking onto the next battlefield in the U.S.–China tech war — robots. And unlike the confused, slow-moving bureaucracies of past administrations, this White House is treating robotics like the new industrial Manhattan Project.
According to sources inside the meetings, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been privately huddling with robotics CEOs, signaling he is “all in” on accelerating the sector and preparing America for an era where advanced robotics and smart manufacturing define global power. Insiders say the administration is even weighing a major executive order on robotics next year — a move that would put Washington on a collision course with China’s massive state-backed automation push.
A Commerce spokesperson didn’t sugarcoat the administration’s goal: robotics and advanced manufacturing are now seen as central to bringing critical production back home, after years of offshoring hollowed out the U.S. workforce under previous administrations.
Even the Department of Transportation is preparing to roll out a national robotics working group, a major signal that multiple agencies are gearing up for a coordinated robotics strategy — something China has been aggressively developing for a decade.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans tried to insert a national robotics commission into the NDAA, but Democrats killed the amendment. Still, legislative pressure is mounting as lawmakers realize robotics has become the newest front in the U.S.–China rivalry.
🇺🇸 THE NEW ARMS RACE: ROBOTS VS. CHINA’S AUTOMATED EMPIRE
The numbers tell the story: by 2023, China had 1.8 million industrial robots functioning inside its factories — FOUR TIMES as many as the United States. Beijing, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Australia — all already have national robotics strategies.
America? Only now starting to correct a decade of political negligence.
To catch up, U.S. investment must surge. Funding is projected to hit $2.3 billion in 2025, double last year’s numbers, and Goldman Sachs predicts the global humanoid robotics market could explode to $38 billion by 2035.
Industry leaders say robots are not just machines — they are the physical form of AI, and any serious American AI policy must include robotics or risk falling hopelessly behind.
That’s why robotics companies are pushing the administration hard:
• Tax incentives for automation integration
• Stronger supply chains
• Federal funding for deployment
• Trade policies to confront China’s subsidies and IP theft
As Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas put it: “We need a national robotics strategy — now — if we want to stay competitive.”
Apptronik itself, backed by Google and valued at $5 billion, has already produced Apollo, one of the world’s first general-purpose humanoids operating inside a major auto plant — a futuristic milestone that China, not the U.S., was expected to hit first.
Boston Dynamics’ Brendan Schulman issued a sharper warning:
“China’s investment in robots to dominate the future is being noticed — and it’s time the U.S. responds.”
🤖 THE BIG QUESTION: WILL ROBOTS SUPERCHARGE U.S. MANUFACTURING — OR KILL JOBS?
Here’s where the political tension rises. Trump has vowed to rebuild the American manufacturing workforce. But if factories “reshore” only to fill their floors with machines, critics argue the U.S. could win the industrial war while losing the workers it aims to help.
Economic researchers warn that automation often reduces opportunities and wages for workers in routine roles. But industry leaders paint a very different future: one where robots augment workers, making American factories more competitive, more productive, and ultimately more human-powered — not less.
Automation advocate Jeff Burnstein says companies that invest in robotics almost always expand their workforce as they grow. And Cardenas adds:
“It’s not man versus machine — it’s man and machine that will take us into the future.”
This is the vision shaping the Trump administration’s next major industrial policy: robots built in America, deployed in America, strengthening America — before China beats us to it.
🔥 Bottom line: A robotics executive order, a national robotics working group, a coordinated industrial strategy — the pieces are in motion.
The administration sees robotics not just as machines, but as the next great American advantage in the fight against Beijing’s rise.
And this time, they’re determined not to fall behind.